Decompiling Java

Godfrey Nolan

Jul 2004 · Apress

About this ebook

Both Java and .NET use the idea of a "virtual machine," or VM. And while VMs are useful for some purposes, they undermine the security of your source code, because creation can be reversed, or decompiled. Which makes this one-of-a-kind book extremely useful: you must understand decompilation, to properly protect your intellectual property. For example, how secure is your code after you run an obfuscator? The book will answer questions like this, and provide more thorough information about Java byte codes and the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) than any other book on the market. This book redresses the imbalance by providing insights into the features and limitations of today's decompilers and obfuscators, and offering a detailed look at what JVMs actually do.

Table of Contents Introduction Ghost in the Machine Tools of the Trade Protecting Your Source: Strategies for Defeating Decompilers Decompiler Design Decompiler Implementation Case Studies

About the author

Godfrey Nolan is president of RIIS LLC, where he specializes in website optimization. He has written numerous articles for magazines and newspapers in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Ireland. Nolan has had a healthy obsession with reverse engineering bytecode since he wrote Decompile Once, Run Anywhere, which first appeared in Web Techniques in September 1997.